The Arm defies the normal flat, meandering, floodplain environment of the tidal bore. Contained within the stunning backdrop of the Chugach Range, and with a wealth of wild and marine life, the bore experience here is truly unique.
Photo Courtesy Dwayne Watts
Below the Arm is described in the words of local surfer John Markel.
'Turnagain Arm is truely a scenic wonder. It a very dynamic place that is
constantly changing. The weather and water is never still. There are always
some kind of standing waves as the tide comes and goes. At low tide there are
extensive sculpted mud flats that make a scenic moonscape, in summer there is
a brilliant green algae that forms in some places. In winter the arm is at
it's most scenic. It is full of ice flows that are ripping by at 15-20 miles
per. The flow of the water is channeled by the ice formations which seems to
make it move faster and the wave seems to have more punch or juice to it.
When you surf the wave in the spring time the grounded ice bergs create a
white water slalom course and rapids as the incoming tide runs over them.
After the ice goes out in the spring, the hooligan return and with them come
the beluga whales and hundreds of bald eagles. In early summer the salmon
runs start which will bring the beluga's in again. Occasionally there is an
orca that comes to eat the beluga and salmon. This fall the wave seems to be
dying out as the bottom conditions change. Perhaps the inlet is filling in
with silt...'
